C-RED One : The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 673944 C-RED 2 : This project is supported by the “Investments for the future” program and the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region, in the frame of the CPER.

INFRARED INTERFEROMETRY: C-RED ONE IS LOOKING AT THE SKY!

2017 Oct 16

MIRC-X combines the light from all six telescopes of the CHARA telescope array, which is an interferometer located on Mount Wilson in California/USA. The CHARA array is worldwide the only optical interferometer that is able to combine the light from 6 telescopes spaced up to 330 meters apart. CHARA and the MIRC-X instrument are ideally suited for imaging stellar surface structures or to image the environment around stars with unprecedented resolution.

The MIRC-X instrument has been built by the University of Exeter (UK) and the University of Michigan (USA) and aims to make the discs around young stars for the first time accessible with 6-telescopes infrared interferometric imaging. These discs constitute the left-over material from the star formation process and provide the stage where planets form. Once planets have formed, they shape the disc environment, for instance by carving out gaps or by stirring up the disc material in warps. MIRC-X will enable astronomers to obtain direct images of these inner disc processes, providing a glimpse on how our own solar system might have looked like 4.6 billion years ago, during its formation phase.

C-RED One uses the SAPHIRA e-APD detector by LEONARDO (formerly SELEX), allowing avalanche amplification and multiplication of electrons. The amplification process reduces the read noise contributions by several orders of magnitudes, enabling MIRC-X to detect the faint starlight associated with young stars and their protoplanetary discs.

First Light team would like to send a huge THANK YOU to the MIRC-X team, for their amazing job and sharing their results !

C-RED One: The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 673944

First Light Imaging at SDW Baltimore – September 24-29, 2017

2017 Sep 14

Dr. Philippe Feautrier, Scientific advisor at First Light Imaging and Technical Director at IPAG/CNRS, will participate to SDW (Scientific Detector Workshops).The workshop will take place in Baltimore, USA, at the Space Telescope Science Institute, from September 24 to 29, 2017, and will bring together the scientists and engineers who develop, produce and implement the most advanced imaging sensors used in scientific instrumentation.

C-RED 2 is READY!!!

2017 Aug 21

Here it is: our final C-RED 2, with more than 400 frames per second and a <30 electrons RON.
InGaAs 640 x 512 sensor for SWIR Imaging, smart, compact, ideal for all applications in astronomy, bio-imagery, industry.

C-RED 2 : This project is supported by the “Investments for the future” program and the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region, in the frame of the CPER.

SPIE DCS – C-RED cameras by Philippe Feautrier

2017 May 18

Dr Philippe Feautrier presented his latest scientific paper about C-RED One and C-RED 2 at SPIE DCS (Defense and Commercial Sensing) in April 2017.

Discover the paper to have the latest news and performances data of our 2 infrared cameras.

C-RED One : The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 673944 C-RED 2 : This project is supported by the “Investments for the future” program and the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region, in the frame of the CPER.

Save the date! Meet First Light Imaging at DCS in Anaheim next month

2017 Mar 27

Meet First Light Imaging at SPIE Commercial Sensing and Imaging.
This conference is part of the SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing show, taking place from April 10 to 13, 2017, at the Anaheim Convention Center, California, USA.

Visit us on Booth 252 , and see our Visible and Infrared SWIR ranges of cameras.

Landesmesse Stuttgart GmbH
Messepiazza 1
70629 Stuttgart, GERMANY

First Light Imaging at VISION China in Beijing

2016 Oct 16

With our partner LEAD INDUSTRIAL, First Light Imaging is present on the 13th China International Machine Vision Exhibition and Machine Vision Technology & Application Conference, from October 17 to October 19, 2017, in Beijing.

C-RED One, the fastest low noise Infrared camera in the world (3500 images per second, <1 electron RON), will be presented, as well as OCAM², the very high speed and subelectron read out noise visible camera.

You can meet our team and discover our high speed low noise scientific cameras on LEAD INDUSTRIAL's booth #2405.

First Light Imaging sponsor of the WFS Workshop of Marseille!

2016 Sep 26

The Wavefront Sensing in the VLT/ELT Era Workshop organized by CNRS-LAM, ONERA and INAF, will take place at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille from October 3 to 5, 2016. During 3 days, international specialists of adaptive optics, wavefront sensing, detectors and post-processing will gather to share ideas and scientific progresses.

The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 673944

EMCCD and e-APD: a new era for optical imagery

2016 May 30

Dr Carine Doucouré, from the R&D department of First Light Imaging, will present our cameras and technologies EMCCD and e-APD during the "2nd industry and research for living imagery" meeting day, on May 31, at the European Hospital GeorgesPompidou in Paris.

This meeting aims at reinforcing collaborations between academic and industrial research in imagery, as imagery has become a major actor in the development of new therapies.

2016 Apr 13

Come and see First Light Imaging's cameras on SPIE Defense + Commercial sensing, in Baltimore, USA from April 17 to 21, 2016, the leading global sensing and imaging event for defense and commercial applications.

And the winner of the Prism Award for Photonics is… First Light Imaging !

2016 Feb 17

First Light Imaging is so happy to announce that we just won the Prism Award for Photonics 2016in the Cameras&Imaging category, with our incredible C-RED One camera!

Our tremendous technology made once again the difference and it is amazing to be selected by the world’s Photonics Industry, as the best Photonics Innovation within our category, among so many great applicants!

We are really proud of our C-RED One and of the mutual work of our team!

Today is the last day of Photonics West so don't miss the chance to see C-RED One on our booth 1123B!

The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 673944

First Light Imaging at Photonics West, San Francisco, in February 2016

2016 Jan 15

Photonics West, the world's first photonics, laser and biomedical optics conference with over 1250 industry-leading exhibitors and 20000 attendees , will take place from February 16 to 18, 2016, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, USA.

First Light will be pleased to welcome you on its booth 1123B on the French Pavilion, South Hall!

2016 Jan 11

First Light Imaging is one of the 3 finalists of the famous Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation, in the “Cameras & Imaging” category, with C-RED One, the world’s fastest low noise scientific infrared camera.

Thank you JPL team !

AO4ELT 4 – Save the date!!

2015 Sep 26

First Light Imaging will be present at the the fourth biennial Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes meeting, which will take place from October 26 to 30, 2015 at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, California, USA.

The conference will gather specialists to review and discuss the latest developments of the ELT’s current design in terms of AO systems, related instruments and science goals. Special attention will be given to key components and innovations, in order to increase the scientific impact of the future ELT’s.

A huge thank you to the SCExAO team for sharing their results!

First Light Imaging is one of the next EU innovation leaders with the Horizon 2020 – SME Instrument grant for C-Red One

2015 Mar 29

The European Commission has selected 94 SMEs from 19 countries to each receive a grant of up to €2.5 million to finance innovation activities and the development of their business plans, as part of the Horizon 2020 program.

First Light Imaging is proud to be among the 6 French projects selected, for the development of the world's fastest low-noise Infrared camera: C-Red One!

Images from SUBARU TELESCOPE using First Light’s OCAM²K

2015 Jan 20

First Light’s Founder Jean-Luc Gach rewarded!

2015 Jan 11

First Light’s founder Jean-Luc Gach rewarded on January 13th, 2015, with the Crystal Medal of the CNRS, among 16 people. The Crystal Medal honors very innovative engineers and technicians who contributes to French Research Excellency.

First Light rewarded at the Trophées de l’Economie La Provence 2014!

2014 Nov 20

First Light rewarded again !!Main French Southeast newspaper La Provence has rewarded First Light Imaging during its Economics annual rewards ceremony.With more than 600 people, this ceremony is the largest economic event of Marseille's area, First Light has been rewarded in the "Start Up" category.

Photonics West 2014 in San Francisco

2014 Jan 08

First Light Imaging will be at Photonics West 2014 in San Francisco Moscone Center. We’ll be on the French pavillion, booth 1123-E from February 4th to the 6th.

Come and discover our new Ocam2-S. With a 1µsecond electronic shutter function in addition to Ocam2’s stellar performance. Also check out our Ocam2-WFS, the best Wavefront Sensor now integrating a micro lenses array.

We will also introduce our new low-noise / high-speed Infrared project.

OCAM2 Linux Demo & SDK available

2013 Oct 22

Designed for Matrox™ boards and the MIL (Matrox Imaging Library) Release 10 Early Access, the OCAM2 Linux Demo demonstrates the use of our OCAM2 camera under both Linux and Windows™ environments, and provides easy-to-use SDK functions for many common OCAM2 acquisition tasks such as Frame rate adjustments or image descrambling.
This software has been tested under Kubuntu 12.04 64-Bits and Windows 7 x64 SP1.
Please note that this SDK is BETA software, pending the official MIL Version 10 Release by Matrox.
Also, note that the OCAM2 Demo and SDK requires functional installation of the Matrox Imaging Library Release 10 Early Access.
You can download the OCAM2 Demo Installer here.

First Light Imaging is rewarded again !

2013 Jul 15

On Tuesday, july 2nd The First Light Imaging Team had the honor and pleasure to be awarded the 15th “Concours National d’Aide à la Création d’Entreprises Innovantes - CNACETI” (National Prize for Innovative Enterprise Creation) by the French ministry of Research & Higher Education along with BPI France (OSEO – Public Investment Bank). Already laureate of the 2010 prize for Emerging Companies, First Light Imaging is now winner in the prestigious and very selective “Creation – Development” category.
Selected among more than 1000 candidates nation-wide, our company has been recognized for its ambitious program to develop extremely fast and sensitive infrared cameras.
This award will be essential in accelerating even more our R&D programs, form new partnerships and reinforce the technological lead that single out young First Light Imaging as one of the world’s most advanced companies in optoelectronics R&D.
More information about the Prize (in French):http://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/pid24633/concours-national-d-aide-a-la-creation-d-entreprises-innovantes.html

OCAM 2K Released

2013 Jun 07

The Aptly named OCAM²K camera was introduced during the AO4ELT 3 Conference in Florence, Italy (don’t miss the other news for coverage on this major event!).
OCAM²K, dressed in white for the occasion was on display at First Light’s booth where it tirelessly demonstrated how easy it could make centroiding a signal 10 photons high at 2067 FPS, capturing over a quarter of a billion images during the conference.
With its cruise speed above 2000FPS, OCAM²K is the fastest OCAM² to date, offering 33% more speed than the already considerably speedy OCAM²-1500.
First Light Imaging R&D department optimized and even redesigned critical subsystems of OCAM² electronics to achieve this neck-breaking pace without compromising on the splendid characteristics that define the OCAM² line: the readout noise is still just as low with values down to 0.1e-, Dark Signal is negligible, and latency gets even better at 43µs between exposure and first pixel availability.
Unlike the competition, OCAM² delivers all its nominal performances at the same time, without compromise. Be it Noise, Frame Size, Latency or Speed, all specs are given for regular frame and speed operation.
Should 2000 full-size (240x240 pixels) images per second not be fast enough, we added an optional 2x2 binning mode that can achieve 120x120 pixels at an even more neck-breaking 3700 images per second!
OCAM²K is immediately available with Deep Depletion Silicon for enhanced red sensitivity. Note that our OCAM² is the only EMCCD camera to offer this improved Deep Depletion Silicon, yet another feature unique to our flagship camera.

First Light has signed a partnership with EADS

2013 Feb 07

First Light has signed a new partnership with EADS, the famous European aeospace group. EADS is acting in aeronautical, space and defense with Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium and Cassidian. Thanks to this agreement, First Light is now more involved in security and defense fields.

First Light is in San Francisco

2013 Feb 04

First Light team is in Photonics West in San Francisco booth 1225 on French pavilion.

Our camera is on demonstration on our booth from Tuesday 5th to Thursday 7th of February. If you want to be shot at 1500 fps by the World’s fastest low light imaging camera, come and visit us. Please be kind with our staff coming from Marseilles, jet-lagged and frozen !

OCAM² on the sky

2012 Sep 19

OCAM² will be featured in an upcoming observing run at the prestigious Mt Wilson Observatory in California. For a change, our little camera will not be powering the adaptive optics loop but instead will be the observing eye in an interferometry instrument.

OCAM² Down Under

2012 Sep 19

Delivery time is approaching for the first OCAM² that will fly in the southern hemisphere! Our team is busy making sure that our camera will be ready to its long trip to Australia where it will be integrated in the adaptive optics bench of the RSAA. We just hope that we’ll get a postcard from time to time!

OCAM² had an eye on SPIE Amsterdam

2012 Jun 24

OCAM² has watched the numerous attendants of SPIE Astronomy & Telescopes with an unblinking eye. The camera on demonstration live performed flawlessly on the grounds of the Exposition, taking approximately 150 million individual images at the pace of 1500 images per second for 3 days while the event lasted. We honestly didn’t keep all the images but we would like to say a big thank you to all the people who came by and talked with us!